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New killer virus in the Middle East

26 September 2012

A VIRUS never before seen in humans has caused severe illness in two people in the Middle East, killing one. It belongs to the same family as SARS, which killed nearly 800 people.

It is not clear if this virus is a new SARS, as there is no evidence that it can spread readily among people. “But we need to keep an eye on it,” says Ab Osterhaus of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Genetic sequencing revealed that coronaviruses virtually identical to each other caused severe pneumonia and kidney failure in a man in Saudi Arabia in July, and another in Qatar in September. People who came into contact with the men show no sign of infection, but pneumonia cases in the region are being tested to check for the spread of the virus.

The virus is from a subfamily of coronaviruses common in bats, as is SARS. “It could be spreading, but mostly causing mild disease we don’t see,” says Osterhaus. “Or it could be only occasionally spilling over into people from bats.”